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Big systems - Little rooms

I enjoy browsing the Virtual Systems posted online here ( and have posted my own).  I am puzzled , however, by the too common practice of placing large ( and usually expensive) speakers into very tight confines, often less than a foot from the front wall and barely more from the side walls.  Presumably the sitting position is likely against the back wall.  Many of these systems also have significant power and expensive source components.  While I may be as susceptible as most to upgradeitis, I have tried to give some recognition to the size of my listening space in my equipment selection.  Have I overlooked some new approach to managing room acoustics, or are most speakers not as sensitive as some articles describe to position within the room.  It would otherwise seem that these systems might benefit from  a bit of downsizing to achieve superior sound imaging.
sjtm
jtcf's avatar
jtcf
1,589 posts
 
I agree with Duke about choosing a speaker with the best acoustic behavior for the particular room.Some large speakers require a minimum amount of space to sound as they were designed to sound.No matter what is done to the room they will never sound right sitting just a few feet away.There's a reason that speaker manufacturers create different styles and sizes:)
soix
8,701 posts
 
@yyzsantabarbara and @sjtm -- why the hesitation on subs? I’d think especially in a small room you’d have a much easier time integrating the bass since you can move them to where the bass sounds best and either use some bass management (i.e. DSpeaker, etc.) or the sub’s own DSP (if it has it) or volume and phase controls to help better integrate it to your room. With big speakers you’re stuck with the woofers having to be in the same spot as the speaker, which may well not be optimal, especially in a smaller room. And, with subs you’ll likely get down to a true 20Hz, which likely will not happen with a standalone speaker. Oh, and buying monitors or smaller floorstanders with two good subs will likely be a lot cheaper than buying big, good speakers. Just sayin’.

Or, if you must buy large speakers I'd definitely use some kind of DSP.  This is just a square peg into round hole situation, and you'll have to go to great lengths and probably great expense to get it to sound decent with room treatments.  It will sound great with DSP and avoid you having to turn your room into something that looks like an adult romper room with all sorts of funny shapes all over the place.  The newer DSP devices (i.e. Lyngdorf, DSpeaker) are very good and not all that expensive. 
yyzsantabarbara
4,502 posts
 
@soix I do not have room for subs in my office (I have a big desk in there). I am also not looking for very low bass, just more than what I currently have with my monitors. There are small floor standers with good bass that will fit into a space small as 12x11x9. I found out after room treatments that my room played much bigger. I will try without DSP first but if DSP is needed I will look at something like the following:

Anthem STR preamp
Linn SELEKT DSM

I have heard the Lyngdorf 2170 and liked the preamp section but did not like the amp section. So that unit is not being considered. Another recommended DSP unit, DEQX, seems more effort than I am willing to spend. So I have narrowed it down to the 2 mentioned above (if I need DSP).

I should add that I may wait a bit for Linn to upgrade the rest of their lineup because I need some analog inputs in my preamp | streamer | DAC unit. Linn has this in their older non-modular models. The new modular SELEKT DSM only has 1 analog phono only input.

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